Lot
66

JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY SINCE 1960

ANOTHER PROPERTY

I had taken a photograph of a stray dog, showing the whites of its eyes and snarling, on the streets outside a US air base in the town of Misawa in Aomori Prefecture in northeast Japan. The strong image of that photograph had caught the eye of many people, and thereafter that dog and I came to be seen and talked about as if somehow superimposed on each other. Also, the figure I cast during that time, roaming around town and on the back streets, carrying my camera, appeared in others' eyes very much like a stray dog.

Lot Essay

Moriyama made two versions of his most iconic image with the dog facing in opposite directions. Here the dog is facing left as it first appeared in the March 1971 issue of Asahi Camera. When Stray Dog was next published in Moriyama's Hunter in June 1972, the dog is facing right (fig.2). Both versions of the image continue to be exhibited and reproduced. In a joint interview in 2003, Moriyama and Araki discuss the existence of the two dogs:

Moriyama: I like the sensation of chopping. I get carried away and keep cutting until I get to the 4x5 proportion.
Araki: That's why you produce two or three versions of each photo. Even in the darkroom, I have the feeling you create new pictures. You're not able to print out a negative twice in the same way, are you?
Moriyama: No, I can't. It's impossible for me.
Araki: That's why in each exhibition, the photo Stray Dog faces a different way, in one direction this time and in another the next!
Moriyama: That's really weird to me as well. When that photo needs to be printed, I'm always at a loss as to which one is the original version. (quoted in Daido Moriyama, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain/Actes Sud, p.137)

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Pre-Lot Text

JAPANESE PHOTOGRAPHY SINCE 1960

ANOTHER PROPERTY

I had taken a photograph of a stray dog, showing the whites of its eyes and snarling, on the streets outside a US air base in the town of Misawa in Aomori Prefecture in northeast Japan. The strong image of that photograph had caught the eye of many people, and thereafter that dog and I came to be seen and talked about as if somehow superimposed on each other. Also, the figure I cast during that time, roaming around town and on the back streets, carrying my camera, appeared in others' eyes very much like a stray dog.